Island of Khora

After reaching the rolling hills of emerald green grass and spying the White Tower, our heroes begin the final leg of the journey to understand why this tower is so important.

After about half-a-days travel across the plains Karavox and Sylja both spy a figure moving in the treeline in the far distance behind them. After they rest for the night, during a late watch, Sylja sees signs of a fire that may be hidden behind one of the hills of the plains. She stirs Karavox to see if he can confirm her suspicions. He looks through his Temperature Monocle and sees a slight heat signature rising above a distant hill, sure signs of a campfire.

In the morning there is no other signs of their pursers so during the day they continue the journey, keeping ever vigilant for anyone following behind but can see no other pursuers.

After finally arriving at the White Tower they find it is made out of a white stone unlike anything they’ve seen so far on this island. They also, after walking around the tower can see no entrance on the ground level. The outside is a perfectly crafted smooth surface all the way around.

After being stumped by what to do, and making some noises a face is briefly seen poking out of a narrow window at the top of the tower, shortly after the party is all magically transported into a large glass cube holding cell inside what looks like a very expansive workshop.

A small gnome carrying a staff that is capped with a clockwork rooster head comes out and starts to interrogate his new prisoners about their motive. During his questioning he relays that the thing creating the tremors that have been plaguing Khora is actually an experiment of his that was infused with an ancient and powerful magic from a Magic Idol he had purchased in Breen.

The magic was used to create a Clockwork Heart that could power automatons. Unfortunately the animating effect of the magic on the heart started to quickly grow and accumulate various stone and metal fragments into itself. Growing larger and large each day. Soon The Creature had escaped his lab before he could destroy it and it eventually destroyed Breen.

This gnome, named Victor Von Fink, had fled to the White Tower to use as a place to work on a method of stopping the creature. He produced a small device from his pocket and told the team that if he could attach this to the heart he could stop the creature.

While this was going on cultists appeared from the shadows and staked a small beacon into the floor and started shielding it with magic. Another hooded cultist came out and started to speak to Victor in a high, feminine, voice.

After her face was revealed, the face of a high-born elf, she revealed herself to be Silvia, the elf that Thorn had asked you to keep an eye out for. She also was the person that sold the Magic Idol to Victor that infused his clockwork heart with such powerful magic.

Questioning from the team revealed that Thorn was merely being led on by Silvia and means nothing to her. During the exchange Victor quickly transported the team out of the glass box and in front of himself as protection. Silvia tried to charm Karavox, obviously picking the worst target for seduction, and after the botched attempt it is already too late.

As the tower rumbles Victor pulls himself and all the party members into the glass box to protect them from damage. Silvia disappears into the shadows, and soon the rumbling and sound culminate and darkness envelops the room. Everything goes black.

After the rumbling subsides our heroes are left in the glass box, a bit shaken but still protected. Victor hits an escape hatch and blows a path out of the rubble. Our heroes walk out to find themselves facing the green rolling hills again, but looking out to the horizon see stone walls slopping up to form a huge stone cylinder that they are in. Cracks and holes in the upper walls and ceiling leak in sunlight across the plains.

After finding themselves trapped in an old ruin with an animated bull statue a tough battle ensued and ended up seriously wounding Arc and Kineth. With healing magic they will survive.

After enough blows were struck a final hellish rebuke twisted and melted the bull statue after multiple metal plates were knocked loose from it. Grant and J made their way back towards town, but before leaving they gifted our heroes with a Temperature Monocle for their travels.

After finding themselves free of the ruins they slept the night to recover their strength. They talked at length about why they came here and how they keep going in a world that seems to be filled with death and destruction.

At last, during travel next morning they crested a hill to find rolling hills covered in emerald green grass. In the distance a single stark white streak cut through the horizon line. The White Tower was close at hand.

After saying their final farewells and parting ways with Captain and his crew, who decided to stay in Guardian’s Post to help out, our party heads north towards the White Tower.

After about half of a days travel, as the scattered forest comes closer to the heavily overgrown trail, our heroes see a half-orc come stumbling out of the forest towards the trail. Our band put up a vision to hide their presence and soon saw a gnome stumble out of the forest behind the half-orc.

After trying to fool the gnome with a shadow vision the duo is finally introduced to our group as J and Grant, two members of TAPS (The Amazing Phantasm Society). These phantasm hunters had been on the heels of a phantasm that they had started chasing in Breen about a week ago.

The group had been tracking this phantasm using an EMF Detector that Grant had designed. After some discussion Grant convinced the party to help him and J track down the phantasm who must be close.

After running through the woods a bit Grant tracked the phantasm to the ruins of an old worship site using his Temperature Monocle. After everyone entered the ruined sanctuary Grant pointed out the phantasm in a corner, but only a pair of boots was seen.

Karavox, never being one to leave a helpless pair of boots undestroyed slung some magic towards them. They, and the form that filled them, went flying back into a wall. It was revealed to be a cultist wearing the Cloak Of Invisibility.

The group quickly knocked out the cultist, recovered the cloak, and found a small device that had a crystal on top that pulsed with blue light. After the cultist came to he said it was already too late, and that the Great Old One was coming to consume them, and that they would be born anew.

After no more information is divulged Karavox slit the throat of the cultist, to the slight dismay of some of the group members. After the cloak is recovered the group turns to leave the ruins but a rumble is felt below them. As it intensifies the vines and overgrowth on the temple weave together and block the entrances and upper windows of the sanctuary.

As the tremors intensify, as does the pulsing of the crystal on the device left by the cultist, Arc slings a dagger at the device, shattering it and sending the crystal skidding across the floor. The tremors seem to intensify, then start quickly subsiding, as if something passed right underneath them.

The group finally began to breathe a sigh of relief as a loud squelching noise is heard and a large bronze bull statue within the sanctuary became animated and stepped down off of it’s base.

After a night bunked in the guard barracks the group was mulling over some new found magical items. Sylja had been given the Cards of Desire by an old dwarven woman after saving her life. Kineth had been given an Amulet of Wellbeing from a man after rescuing his family from a crumbling building.

Karavox decided to look around for the old dwarven woman, hearing that she had also mentioned the King in Yellow. While he was doing this Aureliana had taken one of Sylja‘s Cards of Desire. After seeing the image of a female human wizard standing in front of a large White Tower that is standing on rolling hills of green she was determined to find out more. She headed to The Wise Owl the library and bookstore in Guardian’s Post to try and dig up more information on this tower.

Ending up there at the same time as Karavox she finds out the White Tower is located not too far north of the post, but has often been thought to be cursed, and people seldom ever visit it anymore. Karavox finds himself a new book that he overpays quite a bit for.

After regrouping the party ends up in front of Captain Thorn and lets him know their intent to leave. With a surprisingly leveraged amount of charisma from Sylja it is divulged that Thorn is looking for another elf named Silvia. He says he will repay you if you can help her find her way back to him.

Preparing to journey out our heroes stop at General Goods and met Cat and Pup, the businesses owners. They purchased supplies for the trip and even were told that there is a reward if they can retrieve an item stolen from the shop, the Cloak Of Invisibility. Aureliana also resists the urge to purchase a magical dagger that had been mixed in with the other mundane daggers, instead telling the shopkeep of the mistake and losing out on the item.

The party then went and grabbed some horses, getting ready to venture out to the White Tower.

Our adventures meet aboard a ship bringing them to the Island of Khora. This island has been rocked by unusual tremors of late and much of it’s citizens have fled. The King’s Guard of Neverwinter has put up an open call for adventures to investigate this strange happening. For various reasons our crew has taken up the call.

As the ship neared Khora the crew ran aground due to the lighthouse outside the city of Breen being uncharacteristically dark. Though they ship was lost the captain and much of the crew escaped with the adventurers and headed to the bay outside of Breen. The next surprise was that the city of Breen itself was on fire. Burning through the night.

After docking their boats the adventurers decided to make their way to the lighthouse to see if they could find out why it had gone dark. After a brief encounter with some cultists talking about the Great Old One our heroes found some daggers with snakes on the handles and a few emblems with a snake symbol on them.

From their vantage point up by the lighthouse our heroes could now see in the morning light that the majority of Breen was gone, and a large hole was all that was left behind. The hole was nearly two miles across. With the largest city on the island gone, and no way home our crew decided to try journeying towards a fishing village on the west of the island, looking for any hope of a sea worthy vessel.

On the road to the fishing village our crew felt a tremor roll past them, in the aftermath Awakened Trees, Vine Blights, and even an Animated Chain had become magically animated and started attacking the crew. During the battle the animated nature slowly lost animation and fell back to inanimate.

After coming to a crossroads leading to the fishing village, or Guardian’s Post, a previous military outpost, the crew of the ship deferred to the heroes to decide which direction they should travel. The consensus was to head to Guardian’s Post.

Another shock lay in front of the band of travelers as they caught site of the post. The giant statue of a soldier in a defensive pose holding a spear was instead replaced by what looked like a giant statue of a soldier who had just thrown an object, and a giant glinting metal spear was embedded through the walls of the post, taking out a portion of the compound.

Our heroes rushed to the town and found themselves among a clean up and rescue crew. Some of our heroes chose to help villagers while two others took up the task of interrogating two Cultists captured on the scene after the attack on the post.

The two helping the citizens found themselves among new trinkets. A protective amulet and a strange deck of cards, one showing an elf reunited with their parents, the rest appeared blank.

Karavox also relayed visions of a white tower among a field of green. Strange tentacles pulling it down into the earth, leaving behind a hole with two eyes peering out.